Conventionally, trucks as large scale work vehicles are widely used for carrying crushed stone at mines and the like. Since these types of dump trucks are markedly wider and longer from front to back than typical vehicles, the driver finds it difficult to discern the conditions in the area surrounding the work vehicle using the side mirrors and the like.
On the one hand, a surrounding area monitoring device has been proposed for allowing a driver to easily understand the conditions surrounding the vehicle. The surrounding area monitoring device includes an imaging unit such as a camera mounted on the vehicle. The surrounding area monitoring device creates a bird's-eye view image showing the area surrounding the work vehicle by synthesizing images taken by the imaging unit. For example, in the surrounding area monitoring device for an automobile disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-21307, a bird's-eye view image is created by projecting an image taken by the imaging unit onto a virtual projection plane. Generally, objects that are far away from the vehicle are displayed in an enlarged manner in the bird's-eye view image when the virtual projection plane has a flat shape. As a result, the image is displayed in a wide manner in the traveling direction of the vehicle in the above bird's-eye view image. Accordingly, the virtual projection plane in the surrounding area monitoring device of the above mentioned publication has a shape that gradually rises in the traveling direction of the vehicle. As a result, the image being displayed in a wide manner in the traveling direction of the vehicle can be suppressed.